


REM

by hikariisjaejj



Series: Out There [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Drama & Romance, Dreamsharing, M/M, Psychological Drama, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 09:12:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13315053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikariisjaejj/pseuds/hikariisjaejj
Summary: Everywhere Jongin goes, there seems to be a Kyungsoo... Like a repeated sequence, event after event there is a Kyungsoo. Someone who he feels like he has known for a very long time now. However, Jongin will soon unravel the mystery of him; whether he wants to or not.





	REM

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Setty94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setty94/gifts).



> and I pray and hope you like this
> 
> I don't even know what this story is considered anymore. =_=;
> 
> First scene is the only scene explicit in sexual content, just a warning.

Sweat. Heat. Bodies. Sex. Smut. it was all in the air. Drugs, alcohol, intoxicating hormones everywhere. Glow in the dark, dim lights, flashing strobes. Every corner humping, grinding, kissing. Music pulsed like an electrifying heartbeat through the room. Deafening shouts and music so blinding it did not matter who you were pressed against so long as you could feel their core and their body pulse through yours. Intoxication surrounded every corner. Every booth was filled with bodies gyrating to a rhythm so intense the music could barely keep up.

In the back of the club a private section had been closed off to only the most exclusive. What came as different was that a certain couple had snuck into a room and got by without paying for a private section. They had been beyond the point of intoxication, a drug or two popped and their minds clouded with sex. Their booth was cramped, small and the least bit of comfortable, but they were just too foggy to mind that. An unknown fair skinned, small statured young man straddled a taller, bronzed skinned man named Jongin. Lips were so heatedly pressed against one another at that moment. Pelvis’ pressed firm and moving with the hardness growing inside both of them. Giggles emitting every so often when a neck was sucked, or a hand grazed over a pectoral. Lips raw with red only felt like the tip of the iceberg had been touched. Hands grabbed hips and pulled them tight against one another. Friction was so desperately needed that the smaller sat up and unbuttoned his jeans. Jongin followed quickly in suit, soon, both jean’s revealed taut boxers. The smaller of the two leaned over ever so slightly, making sure to position just right before bucking his hips against the latter’s. Guttural moans left their plump lips, it only drove them further up the wall with ecstasy. Their hips moved in a rhythm that wanted to pound into one another like there would be no tomorrow, but the faster they got it over with, the faster their time together would be over. A hand raised the fair skinned man’s shirt high, Jongin’s hand trailing over every bone and bump on the perfect skin. The man’s body shivered with an unnerving pleasure that made Jongin’s deep brown eyes grow in hunger—the room grew hotter with each passing second. The smaller of the two leaned back, a hand on the booth behind him and stomach out stretched as the latter rubbed a nipple. A breathy moan left the fair skinned man. The nipple was rubbed harder again, another breathless moan.

Jongin sat up and positioned them so that he could lean down and play with the pink buds in his mouth. It was a ride; the pale man’s voice so close to his ear drove him mad as he toyed with the buds and trailed to his neck. Every moan caused him to grind his hips into the other, force driving him to aggression now. In a sudden second, there was a moment when friction stopped, and the fair skinned man disappeared to a southward motion. Pants and underwear were completely removed, a nearly hardened boner was before a head of dark hair. A string of air left Jongin’s mouth as another mouth took him whole. The warmth that bobbed up and down nearly made him lose all sense. He liked how little words were spoken and this man was just going to town, taking all the initiative. Without another word did the stranger pick up his pace, cheeks hollowing and mouth popping with the sounds of wet sugary goodness. Jongin rested a hand and fisted the dark soft locks of the man sucking his cock. His hips twitched into the mouth instinctively; it was unexpected and caused the fair man to choke.

“Fuck.” Jongin said as the smaller released. “Sorry, too much.” He said in a breathless tone.

The stranger looked up with his large doe eyes, cheeks bright and rosy and mouth shiny from the saliva. But as they stared one another down, something weird spoke in the smaller’s eyes. Jongin could not read the expression but once again, pants were removed, and the stranger’s pert ass had been splayed open, his own finger pulsing in and out. His face had been pressed into the booth as his rear faced up, but Jongin took that as his opportunity to finger instead. One, two and three had been added with a small packet of lube (terribly opened and torn right through the middle.) Pain came and gone. Breath heavy with the anticipation of what was to come next.

The smaller sat up and pushed Jongin back down on the booth, straddling him and grabbing hold of the hardened cock.

“Wait, condom?” Jongin asked before anything could happen, but the stranger simply connected the two of them. Tip taken in for a quick moment before all was encased in hot, blissful, wonder.

Jongin leaned his head back and breathed out, “Jesus I hope you’re clean.”

The smaller took a moment before moving any further, his thighs helping him rise slowly on the wet thickness inside of him. A rhythm slowly etched itself into the two, up and down the smaller went. Soon the music was all they needed to keep going, skin slapping hard as the stranger rode Jongin on the booth. His speed was ungodly, and his eyes were hazed with such lust that Jongin nearly exploded upon watching him. The smaller raised a hand to cover any noise that wanted to escape but Jongin had pulled it away.

“I wanna hear it,” he said with such desperation that as his hips thrusted into stranger, he let out a strained moan. Pleasure rode throughout his body as a certain spot was nearly grazed, wanting nothing more for that spot to be rammed again. Jongin rammed up hard again, hitting the spot even harder. A moan so desperate shuddered out of the smaller’s plump lips that it blew the top off. Jongin sat up and switched their positions, ramming his cock further into the fair skinned man to a speed that exceeded the current song. Legs had been pushed back as skin slapped against one another. The stranger’s voice nearly unraveled into a mess of cries wanting more. Jongin grabbed the other’s hard cock and began to pump it fast, the precum was enough for lubrication.

“Oh my god, I’m about to—” Jongin threatened as his climax was reaching, starting to pull out. But the smaller man yanked Jongin’s collar down and crashed their lips. This prevented him from pulling out and rammed into the stranger one last time before both had released. Jongin rode his orgasm out hard, still pounding in as he came.

When he finally pulled out, Jongin hovered over the smaller. Beads of sweat and hair sticking to their foreheads. A knock slammed on the blurred-out glass window of their booth, someone probably yelling at the both of them.

“I want more.” Jongin breathed into the stranger’s ear and continued to bite and suck on the sensitive spot as they heaved from the previous engagement.

The fair skinned man looked so riddled with hot sex that his hazed eyes said it all.

The two quickly got up and put pants back on, not caring for the seamen on their shirts or if they were wearing one another’s underwear. All that mattered was that the taxi ride back to Jongin’s apartment was with filled with secret hand jobs and the elevator ride up to the 11th floor was driven by a steamy blow job. Clothes were ripped away as soon as the apartment door was shut.

Sounds of euphoric, hot sex was all that could be heard from room 1122 that night. Passionate, dirty, fucking that ended in orgasmic cum each round.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

Morning had rolled on by without a stutter. Jongin felt only a little hungover, but that was from whatever was left over from the ecstasy he had taken the night prior. Otherwise, his body felt terrific. He took a deep breath and basked in the lingering pheromones of sex and the man he did not even know the name of. As he stretched his limbs out he looked over the other side of his bed and found that there was no one there. It wasn’t a surprise, he had expected the man to disappear after he fell asleep. What he did not expect, however, was the urge to see the man again. This was mainly because as he looked at the vacant pillow on his queen-sized bed, a small note with a number was left on it.

Jongin smiled widely at this and turned over to his night stand and grabbed his phone. The brightness of the screen hurt his sore eyes and immediately made him lower the brightness. But on the lock screen had been a couple messages sent in by his best friend from the university.

 _Have fun last night? Class is starting_ , Jongin could hear the sarcasm oozing from the text.  
_Yo, you better not walk in late bc I just signed you in_ , he meant the attendance sheet.

Jongin made note that the time was nearly noon and these messages were sent at nine in the morning. He sent a message back; _Thanks, I appreciate it. Also yes, I had a very wonderful night and next time yo ass is coming. They got clean dope and real fine men_

His friend messaged back immediately; _stfu, where are you? I have the notes from last week and today, also meet me for lunch at the café. I need the answers for Turner’s test._

Jongin snorted, _The guy I met last night was soooo cute_

_That’s great I didn’t ask_

_I came like five times last night dude, I’m telling you its lit_

_**it’s_  
Also, still didn’t ask?????  
And your parents didn’t send u to the fuckin university of Boston to explore ur sexuality. Get your ass out of bed and bring me those damn notes.

Their texts would overlap each other, Jongin seriously just wanted to talk about last night and tease his best friend Baekhyun.

To top it all off, Jongin sent in a picture that he had found as he scrolled through his camera roll. It turned out that the man from last night left a few good pictures while he wasn’t looking.

_You can no longer send this user messages._

Had been the small text that appeared at the bottom of the text box. Jongin laughed wholeheartedly, Baekhyun had just blocked him, and probably deleted the photo and his contact information. Oh how he wished he could have seen Baek’s face go red with frustration and prudence. But he also knew the male would mutter, “Damn, he _is_ cute.” At some point.

The picture had been of the stranger from last night. A selfie taken from a high angle on top of his bed in the darkness of the room. The flash of the camera lit up his milky naked body and showed a throbbing, hard, pink cock at the base. He had been using the sheets to feign innocence, as if he did not want to show so much, but it was clearly him who took the picture. Jongin nearly wanted to get hard at the sight of picture, rather, pictures. There were two others just as risqué, and the rest were sloppy and blurry ones he took at the bar before getting it on with the male.

But Jongin had two more classes later in the day, he needed to get up and start his day at some point if he wanted to maintain some sort of GPA that semester.

After meeting with Baekhyun and getting out of his second class of the day Jongin had found his way in the city. He had three hours before his night class and wanted to spend a little time around the area of the club, so he could get in contact with the guy from last night. His thoughts had been filled with nothing but this guy, this stranger who said barely more than two words, yet they could make a connection as if there had always been one. The number left on his pillow had been engraved into his phone, and all day he would open his phone and look at the new message he wanted to craft. He was unsure of why this was so difficult—it wasn’t as if he had never done this sort of thing before.

But as he began to text a simple “hey gorgeous” in the new chat, he couldn’t help but notice as a short male walked passed him at an intersection and continued to walk. He had been waiting behind several other people for the crosswalk signal to turn to the white luminescent letters of “WALK”. Yet, for some reason, a person with black tuffs of hair just kept walking through the crowd. No one seemed to notice, as they were all minding their own business. Jongin watched as the man got closer and closer to the edge of the sidewalk, not even looking like he was going to pause. Jongin stepped forward instinctively, wanting to call out but hoping the guy would stop anyways.

Cars were turning and pushing forward through the lanes, fast and relentless. But of course, the male did not stop and kept briskly walking into the busy crosswalk.

“Hey!” Jongin slammed forward and burst through the hoard of people in front of him.

As if time couldn’t be any more perfect, a car was just seconds from ramming itself into the person’s body. Jongin dashed out, nearly getting hit by another vehicle and body checked the male out of the way. The crosswalk was fairly long, but he was able to crash the two of themselves to the very edge of the street. Cars furiously honked and swerved, nearly causing a pile-up of cars without their evasive maneuvers. People pulled over and got out of their cars to yell, screaming and raising hands at the two people who had been rolled on the ground. No one bothering to ask if they were okay.

But as Jongin tried to lift his upper body up by his arms, he locked eyes with who was beneath him.

It was immediate recognition.

“Hey! You!” Jongin nearly shrieked, completely ignoring all noises around.

The male below looked around frantically, like he was on the lookout for something.

Jongin had gotten up and helped the male up. People still yelled from across the street and people on the crosswalks had pulled out their phones to take pictures and videos. Jongin pulled the male onto the sidewalk and wiped his own sleeves.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He looked the male over for anything noticeable. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so abrasive.”

The male seemed unfazed by his words and stood on the tips of his toes to look out for something behind Jongin.

Jongin turned around and looked to see what he was looking at.

“Is everything alright?” He asked cautiously.

The male looked back at him, “I’m being chased.”

Jongin stood there for a moment, his head turning and wondering what the hell it was he just said.

“W-Who’s chasing you?”

“Bad people. I need to go.” The male turned on his feet and began to quickly walk away again, this time a light jog in his step.

“Hey, wait.. What?” Jongin easily stepped after the male, needing to hear more of the sultry voice and wanting to understand the situation again. “Who are you running from?” He asked as soon as he was close enough.

“There he is!” A voice yelled from down the street, just where they had walked away from.

Jongin could feel all blood drain from his face, especially when the male in front of him cursed and grabbed his hand to sprint down the sidewalk.

They ran, farther and farther down the road and down alleyways until it was for sure that the men chasing would be gone. But for good measure, the smaller male dragged Jongin into a shabby looking apartment complex. It seemed out of service with the way the windows were boarded up and graffiti lined the brick walls.

Inside was just a little bit cleaner than the outside. A flickering light at the top of the ceiling flickered and showed gray walls of a rundown staircase and peeling wall paper. This is where the pale stranger dragged Jongin up the winding stairs and to the third-floor hallway. There, a few people sat on the floor outside of doors, rocking as they waited for something. Jongin had no idea of what was going on.

“What the fuck.” He simply let out as he sat next to the male.

“They won’t get us in here. They won’t dare step on Hernandez’s turf.” The male said as he looked up and down the hall.

“I’m sorry, what? Who the fuck was that? And where are we?”

“The mafia.”

“What?!” Jongin nearly shrieked, but it’s not like the people in the hall would have noticed.

“Sh!” The male quickly hushed him, bringing a finger to his plump lips as their shoulders bumped. “Just ‘cuz Hernandez likes me, doesn’t mean I’m allowed to disrupt his business.” He whispered urgently to the taller male beside him.

“What business?! Where the fuck are we?! And which mafia?! There are like six or more to a country!”

“Please, quieter!” The male grabbed Jongin’s sleeve as he noticed the male wanted to get up and leave. “I’ll tell you, if you _just_ be quiet.”

Jongin stared the male down, his eyes searching for that utter positive affirmation that everything would be fine. He huffed anyways and sat back down despite not seeing the answer he needed.

“First of all, I’m Kyungsoo. Second of all, it’s the Russian mafia. And third of all, Hernandez runs a heroine shop. That’s what this place is. It’s where people come to get their dosage, that’s why these people are waiting out here. They’re waiting for their tato bien.”

Jongin furrowed his brows and found no words leaving his lips despite all the questions that sat there.

“Well, why the fuck is the Russian mafia after you?” He managed after a moment to himself.

“… Let’s just say, they needed a Korean translator and I got picked up from my uncle’s company to do the negotiations with his Korean company. But they decided they wanted to spend more time with me than I could spare so I spat in their faces and beat one guy with a wine bottle. I’m pretty sure there was blood, I ran after that.”

“…I’m sorry, when the fuck did this happen? Was this all in the time span between when you left my apartment and this morning?”

“No,” Kyungsoo chuckled. “This was two days ago. Before we met.”

“Oh.” Jongin laughed awkwardly in response. “…So, then… You know Russian?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Can you speak a little?”

“ _Ubiryasya. Zveda moya, prosnis’_.”

“Well that’s cool… What did you say?”

“I said, is this cool enough for you?”

“Yes, heck yes this is cool enough.” Jongin smiled down at the male, making sure to show it bright and toothy as he was very interested in this guy. “…You know I didn’t think I would see you again, but you left your number, so I was surprised.”

“Me too, I don’t usually leave my number.”

“Guess we have an effect on each other.” Jongin smirked.

Kyungsoo looked up at the latter with round wonderous eyes, it was as if they could speak a million words without a single blink. Jongin had all sorts of warm feelings crawling through him as he stared the man down, wanting nothing more than to delve into the deeper meaning of those eyes.

Jongin blinked for a moment, realizing how serious he was just thinking about this man. He needed to tone it back a dial, they had just met after all!

“You have no idea.” Kyungsoo muttered ever so softly under his breath.

Jongin pretended like he didn’t hear that and went on to the next question on his mind.

“So! Hernandez and the Russian’s.. They don’t get along?”

“Well.. Kinda. It’s more of they have an agreement. Mafia gets half of Hernandez’s profit if they let him do his thing on his own terms on their turf. This is technically their part of the city.”

“Why do you know all this?”

“I just know my way around the area.” Kyungsoo shrugged.

Jongin laughed as he looked around, staring at his boots and letting them hit one another as he thought to himself.

“…Am I about to get involved with a mafia fugitive?” He looked back at the male, who’s face seemed to sport a similar concern.

“I think so.”

The two locked gazes, eyes flickering down between lips as they drew closer and closer to each other. Their lips met, soft and easy figuring out if this was what they wanted. Eventually the pursing of lips and mesh of saliva turned a few seconds of kissing into gasps of air. At some point Kyungsoo had straddled the taller male and wrapped his arms around his neck.

As much as they wanted to take this to the next level, they kept it at a rated make-out session. Lips and tongue mashing and cheeks a flare as “Tato mal!” had been yelled from a room down the hall.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

Morning rolled on by again.

Jongin woke in a daze, his body tired and more than unready to take on the day. He would rather lay in bed all day than go to classes.

He turned to his side to see if Kyungsoo had stayed the night this time, but to no avail the spot was empty. He rolled back to his nightstand and checked for any messages, only the ones from Baekhyun had sprung up.

_Dude you gotta stop partying, you’re gonna fail if you keep missing classes_

_I didn’t party this time. I have a legit reason._

He texted back before going through his pictures in hopes to see something new. However, the pictures from the night prior were missing. His nudes of Kyungsoo had been missing and the blurry pictures from the club were gone. He searched his chat with Baekhyun to see if the picture was still there, but it was gone.

“What the fuck..?” He muttered as he sat up in his sheets.

He searched through his contacts and found that Kyungsoo had been completely erased from his library.

Something did not seem right here.

He needed to find him again

He sat on the side of his bed trying to figure out what was going on when the fire alarm outside of the building began to ring. It was piercing and loud and unpleasant enough to get people out of their apartments. Jongin quickly gathered himself and shoved his laptop in his book bag along with a few important items (just in case it was a serious fire alarm.)

After he changed and threw on his book bag, he dashed out his front door into the loudest and most obnoxious of noises. A white light flashed at corners, signaling the way to the stair-well he now had to take. Not a single person was in sight, but they had probably already evacuated. Jongin was in no rush out of his apartment.

But as he entered the stairwell there had been a heavy haze of smoke and strong smell of burning plastics. He coughed as soon as he inhaled the smoke, swatting away at the air to help him breathe. He raced down the stairs, hoping to get out as soon as possible. But as he passed the eighth floor, the door leading in was propped open and seemed to have a steady stream of smoke leading out.

Jongin, covering his nose with the front of his shirt, slowly pushed the door open. He half expected to see firemen rushing about with people in their arms, but the floor was vacant minus the heavy-set smoke and intense heat. The male’s mind began to click together—the fire was on this floor. There was no sign of professional help, this made Jongin worry; there were probably people still on the floor.

“Fuck.” Jongin set his bookbag down on the stairwell and dashed into the hall, knocking on every door and checking each doorknob for any heat. Thankfully, none of them showed signs of fire…except one. The last door down the hall had been wide open, all the smoke was leading out from it and the heat was greatest there. As Jongin approached it red flames licked almost every edge of the inside of the apartment. Walls were caught in fire, curtains from the window down the small hall were nearly gone. It was a blazing mess.

“Is anyone in here?!” Jongin yelled at the top of his lungs, half expecting no one to answer. And he was right. However, the smoke filled his lungs further and burned at his eyes. As he tried to wipe away the tears, he couldn’t help but notice the familiar outline of a human body sprawled out on the ground in front of the windows by the kitchen. Jongin paused to focus on the shape, making sure it was actually, indeed, a person before diving in to his possible death. The outline amidst the flame seemed legit enough for him, so he dove into the house and ran past the flaming walls as fast as possible. He was now breathing in the toxic air from the burnt fumes, his chest gasping for the clean air it desperately needed. As he entered the kitchen it was clear that the shape was in fact a human. Dressed in black and faced into the ground.

“Hey! Are you okay?” He yelled as he kneeled, almost too afraid to roll over the person in case it was dead or seriously injured. But he grabbed his courage and rolled the body over, revealing an all too familiar face.

“Kyungsoo!” Jongin yelled, coughing a storm shortly after. The male was passed out, eyes closed and barely breathing, probably slowly dying from the lung poising.

Jongin breathed out as he did everything in his power to get a good grip on the body, hoping to carry him down bridal style. It was a tremendous feat, Kyungsoo was no petite fairy, nor was the inhalation of smoke doing his performance any better. In fact, he was only able to carry Kyungsoo just a few feet outside of his apartment when he started to feel light headed. The heavy breathing of lifting a human mixed with poisonous air, it was entirely set up for disaster. Jongin took a step further and crumpled over. His eyes watered with the sting of smoke and his lungs coughing profusely, he was no match for the smoke. He laid Kyungsoo down, watching as the male barely breathed a lick of air. He fell over when his body gave out, his head too dizzy to keep him right side up. Down he went, fallen on top of Kyungsoo and unable to do anything about it.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

“Oh his eyes are fluttering.” The distant calls of nurses and various beeps of electronic devices went off. “Hi, Mr. Kim? Hi, can you hear me?”

Jongin could feel his body sprawled in a relativity comfortable bed as air rushed by his head. He could feel people prodding at his hands and face, talking to him and asking all sorts of questions. He groaned in response.

“Mr. Kim can you hear me? Can you tell me what happened? How long were you in the building for?”

No matter how hard he tried, his eyes would not fully open. It was as if he was under anesthetic and his body was refusing to wake up.

Another grumbled moan left his lips. “Not me..” He managed.

“Mr. Kim?” A lady’s voice came again as his eyes fluttered open. He realized that he was being rushed through hospital corridors and into a room where he noticed someone else also resided. The outline was familiar.

“Mr. Kim, we have to put you in a room with another. The fire in the apartment building hit a lot of people so we’re low on space.” The ladies were quick at work, typing in information and connecting machines. Especially the tubes of air that were being fed through his nose. Jongin felt overwhelmed by everything going on, and unable to act out.

His eyes managed to open just enough as his head lulled to the side, peeking at the person next to him. Just as he thought, it had been Kyungsoo, the man he met just a few days ago and tried to save. An oxygen mask was on his face, unconscious and unresponsive.

“..soo.” He tried to say. Raising a hand to reach out for the male. “Kyungsoo..” He said again, but it hurt to talk, the back of his throat burned with the taste of smoked decay. But as his eyes fluttered open and close, struggling to call out to him, Kyungsoo’s body convulsed as it coughed. His body let out a strong enough cough that blood spritzed the mask. He coughed again, there was more blood now, drooling down his mouth. It was unsettling.

Jongin could hear the heart monitor eradicate, he was unsure if it was his or Kyungsoo’s. Either way, he yelled out hoping the nurses would leave him alone and tend to the patient bleeding and convulsing. Jongin was awake now, unable to move and do anything but he was awake and watching as Kyungsoo’s body slipped further and further from light. The nurses seemed to not care so much, they tended to Jongin as two walked over to Kyungsoo with ease. One put a hand on the patient’s head, she paused and seemed to wait for something. When she finally looked up at the other nurse she shook her head in disapproval. The latter nodded back, and they immediately went into high gear. They unplugged all machines from the walls and removed the bloody oxygen mask. Despite the machines having been unplugged there was still an unnerving sound of a heart monitor beating fast, ready to implode at any second. The two nurses crowed Kyungsoo, Jongin was unable to see his head or face now. Yet he knew what was happening; the lady furthest from him had leaned over, two arms outstretched and oddly in the direction that the male’s face was located on the bed.

“Hey, wait..!” Jongin tried to yell, but his body felt all kinds of restrictions now, his arms bound to the bed and feet buckled in. A nurse grabbed hold of his face with a single strong hand and whipped it forward. Jongin could feel beads of sweat mesh with her clammy hands and his hot face, it was uncomfortable. He ripped away from her grip and looked back at the man being strangled in the bed next to him. The body struggled, legs kicking and arms fighting back the nurse that held them down.

As Jongin screamed and fought against the nurses on him, he watched as life left the body next to him. His struggles seizing to a limp stasis. But as the nurses retreated, time slowed down, the nurses on him and their voices began to block out. It confused Jongin, he could hardly process his grief, anger and confusion all at once.

A voice then suddenly appeared above the muted scene before Jongin, distant and altered as if it were ripping through stranded water. “Come to me,” the voice said. Jongin could not respond and simply looked around, his body still fighting with the nurses in the slow-motion pace. But before he could so much as offer a response the pace began quickening and voices started to appear from mouths. At the same time, another nurse had been readying an oxygen mask for his face. The incoming sight made Jongin keel back into the pillow of his bed, but it wasn’t nearly enough to escape as his body was buckled down. As he breathed the air of the mask in he immediately felt the weight of sleep overtake his unwilling eyes. It was hard, fighting the sleep that wanted to overcome and to get away from the crazy nurses. There was nothing he could do, once again, as sleep overtook his body and mind.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

There was a sensation overcoming Jongin, as if wave after wave rocked him gently awake from his slumber. He could feel his head resting against his arm, a warm beam of sunlight beating down on him. An unnatural taste of mucous and a gritty tongue purposed itself in his mouth. A hunger bit at his stomach like any other, it felt like a pain that burned at his stomach walls, making him feel like throwing up with each pang it possessed. It was all unnatural.

As his eyes opened to a blinding sun beating down on him, he found it hard to move anything in his body. His limbs hurt, and his lips were stuck together in chapped formations. The putrid smell of body odor and excrement was pungent, the male had never felt so uncomfortable in his life, if that’s what it could even be considered. But as he lifted his head with significant effort he noticed everything at once. The electric orange floating raft, the vast deep blue ocean and another body lifeless across from him.

“Kyungsoo,” the name barely left his lips, it was more a struggled gurgle than an actual name. “You’re alive.” He smiled as far as his lips could without hurting.

Kyungsoo had been laying with his arm across the edge of the orange raft, his cheeks were sunken in and skin blistered with sun spots. His eyes seemed void of life, but a small smile crept on his lips when Jongin acknowledged him.

“I’m alive.” His deep voice was soft and low, barely audible above the soft crashing waves.

“Where are we?” Jongin asked as he tried to sit up, two bags of provisions had been laid in between them, but they were empty of any fresh food or water.

A frown found itself on Kyungsoo’s lips this time. “What do you mean?” He sounded parched with the way his hoarse voice came off.

“I-I don’t know why we’re out here..” Jongin looked around him, no sign of land had been seen, they were truly, utterly alone.

“We’ve been out here for thirty days now… You don’t.. You don’t remember what happened?” Kyungsoo sat up this time, his body looking like it had more struggles than Jongin had just a moment ago.

“I-I guess not… I just remember watching nurses suffocate you and then they put me to sleep.” Jongin was starting to find more voice to his throat. He wiped his nose of the itch that drove at it and noticed how thin his wrists were, protruding bone and sagging sleeve. His bare feet were no different, pants too big for his hips now and ankles that looked like they could barely hold him up. Despite that, he still looked better than Kyungsoo who looked ready to be taken off by the wind at any second.

“Jongin… That never happened…” Kyungsoo seemed solemn, as if he pitied Jongin. “The sun must be making you delirious.. Jongin, we’ve been stuck without proper food for twenty-five days now. We finished off the crumbs of the granola bar a week and a half ago and drank the last bit of water soon after.. Your body probably can’t handle what’s going on right now, but we’ve been stuck at sea for thirty days now.”

Jongin seemed so lost, like this was all one terrible joke. He looked down at his hands and noticed the rashes growing on his hand and the scratch marks on his upper arm.

“But… How did we end up like this? I just.. I don’t understand.” Jongin shook his head, denial coursing through his blood as he looked back up at Kyungsoo. “This can’t be real! This… I’m just having bad nightmares, I must have taken too much acid or something and I’m dreaming and I’m just having overactive lucid dreams!” Jongin screamed, placing his hands on his head and fisting his hair.

Kyungsoo leaned over the raft and placed a comforting hand on Jongin’s knee, wanting desperately to comfort the male. “Jongin we—” Kyungsoo started but was interrupted by a forceful push into the raft.

Both men froze, waiting for the rocking to stop and if another would happen. The two immediately looked at one another having an inkling at what might be disturbing them. But as the rocking subsided another push, even more forceful than the last, happened again.

“Shit.” Kyungsoo suddenly muttered as the two men broke away to check opposite sides of the raft. There Jongin had caught the tail end of a fin disappearing under the raft. A dark gray shadow caught the light of the sun, it was at least fifteen feet in length, the tip of the tail grazing the bottom of the raft.

Another swear was instilled from Kyungsoo’s mouth as the shark appeared on his side.  
“It’s huge.” Jongin whispered in a panic as he watched Kyungsoo.

The two broke from their sides and seized their raft, looking for any object long enough or sharp enough to fend off the shark that was now circling them. Kyungsoo had found two small plastic oars, immediately handing one over to Jongin. They assumed positions with their oars ready to attack if the shark decided to make an aggressive offense.

“Hit it in the nose.” Kyungsoo said as his arms shook, the atrophy was making it hard to properly clutch the oar.

“..Won’t that just make it angrier?” Jongin muttered as he scanned the water, waiting. Watching for the beast to make another appearance.

Suddenly, his blood ran cold, a chill ran down his spin. For a fleeting moment a glimmer of light had shone just below the surface of the water. It was nothing spectacular (almost a reflection of the beating sun on the water) as it seemed deeper in the depths of the water. It had only caught Jongin’s eyes for a split second, but it was enough to distract him from the beast of a shark that burst from the gentle waves—mouth wide and baring sets of razor teeth. The entire raft shifted, Jongin’s side raising high in the air and water splashing in every which direction. The raft had completely turned over and Jongin was submerged in the salt brine of an ocean. His eyes stung as he struggled to see through the murk of the deep aqua colored water. His limbs felt the water like air, both thick and aggressive, cold to his bones and painful to his open wounds. He turned around trying to find the raft and surface, the need for air starting to burn at his grasping lungs.

Once the raft was found he swam with every bit of strength his hurting limbs could manage. But as he swam on he could feel himself slowing down, further and further. His vision felt blocked even though they were wide open. It was as if his brain could not process his surroundings. His muscles slowly began to loosen, as if they were relaxing and turning into pieces of lifeless limbs.

As he looked up one last time to fight the sensation overcoming him, he saw the light again—another fleeting moment gone by.

“Come to me, Jongin.” A voice overtook the man’s ears once more. But once again he could not find any moment to respond as the mouth of a great white shark bore itself full in front of him.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

Jongin jolted awake, his heart pounding against his chest as he looked around. Above him had been the moon, bright in her wake and shining down like she had nothing better to. Dead trees and sparse pines littered the surrounding area, a thick layer of snow coating the ground. Jongin had been lying flat on his back and staring at the night sky—all of which was covered in clusters of constellations. As soon as he gathered where he was his heart seemed to slow down. His muscles were beyond relaxed, almost as if they were sunken into the very snow that surrounded him. The snow barely felt wet or cold against his skin, in fact it was hard to feel much at all. Just the strict sound of a light breeze flowing through the trees seemed to be all there was.

The male lifted a heavy arm with a fist full of snow and smashed it into his face. The snow melted on his nose and cheeks, water sliding down with chunks of the white powder. He knew this was weird. He knew he was dreaming excessively. Something was terribly wrong with the recurring sequences.

“Jongin…” A voice suddenly appeared again. It was the same voice that had been calling out to him in the last couple of dreams. It was ambient and far away, like he could never touch the voice even if he had found it.

“Jongin, get up. You must run.” The voice echoed again. Jongin tilted his head up, looking to see if he could find the source of the familiar voice. There had been nothing but trees for what seemed like miles just beyond the small clearing he lay in.

“Quick, you’re running out of time. Follow me this way.” The voice was more urgent this time, seriously beckoning the male to move away.

Jongin sat up slowly on his elbows, looking around to see what might be out there. Just across the way from him, on the other edge of where the forest met the small glade, dark red eyes appeared from nowhere. It was dark through the pine and dead trees, the moon just barely able to shine on it. But as the creature stepped out its fur glistened in the moonlight. Jongin could feel his toes frozen in the snow but everything else seemed to move on its own. His body removed itself from the snow and began to trot off in the opposite direction. There was a weird panic in his head making him lead on, yet nothing fast enough to run away from the beast that was probably chasing him.

“This way!” The voice whispered in the bushes—passing him by as he ran.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Jongin yelled as he started to pick up his pace, his legs were only able to travel so far in the biting cold he could now feel. He wished so terribly hard that the beast was not behind him, but he had not the single shred of courage to look behind himself.

“Come on!” The voice responded instead.

“Who are you?! Where are you?!” He yelled again, still trudging on and not daring to look back.

The moon still shined brightly on the landscape, the snow fluffy as if it were freshly fallen with every step he took. Just down the path of the forest there had been a light, bright, yet small.

“Yes, follow it. To the light!” The voice said with an enthusiasm that seemed to motivate Jongin further. His pace was picked up; he could feel the warmth of movement lubricating his limbs, his heart rate was starting to race. It was happening all so fast, the more he ran in the biting cold under the moon the warmer his body seemed to be against the cold. The bright light filled his vision the closer he got, engulfing everything he was beginning to feel. A warmth so inviting pushed him toward it, his racing heart pounding against his chest as he stood before what seemed like a portal of golden white light.

“Take it.” The voice whispered so deafeningly loud in his ears. There was nothing else but the velvet voice. It was Kyungsoo’s, Jongin was finally able to decipher.

“Why?” He could hear the distortion of his own voice, it was straining to speak. It confused him for only a moment.

“If you want to live the rest of your life, you must take it.”

Jongin stood there, noticing the black jacket he wore for the first time and the dark wet jeans. His hands were cold and stretched out as if ready to take the white light in his hands. But he stopped himself, instead, he turned his head over his shoulder to look at the beast that might have been there.

“Don’t!” The voice yelled. “You mustn’t look!” The voice was just as distorted, straining to be heard through the wavelengths of sound.

“Why?”

“Just do as I say,” The voice was firm, “Reach out your hand, and touch the light. Wake up. Come to me. Stay with me. Be free with me.”

“How do I know I just won’t wake up in another place?” Jongin’s voice nearly cracked, all he wanted was to feel normal. To not experience the inordinate and unorganized thoughts of dreams and dangers every time he was forced into slumber and to wake up. It was torture. He was exhausted.

“Take it. You must if you want peace.”

“Peace… I want serenity.” He reached out his hand. His eyes glowing with the light before him as he watched his hand sink into the pool of light.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

The repeated breath through a machine was melodic and heavy, but it was mostly strained. Jongin could feel his lungs breathe into a mask, the condensation filling it and leaving with every tuff of air that released from his lips.

He felt different this time. Like he had just woken up from an intensely deep sleep. His eyes fluttered open, slowly, but surely, they found themselves focusing and adjusting to the dim red light of the room. He was seated in a rather comfortable chair, his head slumped over and facing what looked to be a metal welded ground.

His mouth felt unbelievably parched, like he had not had anything to drink in weeks. He tried to lift his head from the vertigo he was seriously experiencing but found his neck was having a rather difficult time doing so. He lifted a shaky hand to place on his forehead but found that something was blocking it. He had failed to realize when he woke up that he was wearing a helmet. It was suctioned to his scalp and almost felt like he had been one with it. It might have explained why it was so difficult to lift his head.

A few muffled garbles of incoherent thoughts left his mouth as he tried to process what his body was experiencing. He started with the oxygen mask on his face and ripped it from his face, not realizing tubing had been lodged into his nasal cavities. He coughed as soon as the items were removed. The oxygen mask looked bizarre in his hand, metal and shaped like a cloud rather than the plastic cups he was used to seeing in hospitals.

Jongin’s body felt outlandishly heavy, it was hard to move his limbs in the way his mind wanted. All he wanted was to come to a state of coherency and function properly. He breathed hard with every action he performed, whether it was through his nose or mouth it felt like he was going to fall apart.

“Jongin…” A voice suddenly appeared, it scared Jongin for the moment he did not realize that he was alone. The voice was familiar, deep and soft. It echoed, however, giving depth to the room he was placed in.

Jongin lifted his head further as he found the strength in his arms to remove the helmet that was attached to his head. As he did so a scream left his chapped lips. The helmet had been attached to his head through spikes and other little objects he could hardly begin to comprehend.

“Easy…! You weren’t supposed to take that off just yet…” The soft voice spoke again, it was so soothing to listen to.

“..he-wha… fuck..” Jongin could again only let out breathless garbled speech.

Jongin lifted his head after dismantling the helmet and let it crash to the floor. A heavy thud of metal as it rolled. Jongin felt the lightest he could ever possibly feel in a life time now. He held a hand to his forehead, still trying to open his eyes against the grogginess. There he saw a man sitting in an oval shaped chair across the way. A helmet like the one he had just thrown was in the process of being placed on his side, as if he had just removed it. He was so very familiar to Jongin despite the dark red lighting in the room. His skin glistened pale against the red and his hair seemed dark and full even though the chair he sat in had cushioning that blended in to the color.

“Where am I?” His voice had been purely struggled, a rasp of sound that seemed like he had not spoken in days.

“Shhh… Jongin, just relax. Don’t worry about things like that right now. Right now, you must relax and focus on gathering strength back.”

“...What the hell do you mean?” He groaned as he tried to lift himself from his seat, but he had been buckled in tight. “What’s wrong with me?”

“I’ll answer you, I promise to give you all the answers you want. But right now, I need you to stop struggling around and just relax.” The man removed himself lightly from his seat, hopping down to the floor that seemed closer than Jongin thought.

As he was able to process more he could see the room was indeed large and spherical in overall shape. It was metal, nothing but a lightly colored metal, lights in every other crevice had been flickering or blinking slowly on and off. The edges of the room had small devices and stands that looked like control panels.

“Where the fuck am I?” His voice was no better, still grumbled and hard to hear.

“You’re with me, Jongin, and that’s all that matters right now.” The man seemed to be cautious as he placed his helmet down and took step after step with a hand outstretched. Like Jongin would raise up and bite him like a mad dog at any second.

“Who the fuck are you?!” Jongin spat as his mind fought every fiber in his body to wake up.

The man was silent for a moment. “...You know who I am.” The man stopped walking, in fact, he seemed disappointed with Jongin’s reaction and lowered his arms. Almost as if he had been expecting this.

Jongin raised his head once more, nostrils pumping air hard as he tried to focus more sternly on the man before him.

For some reason a single name had been dancing on the tip of his tongue. A name he had no idea of its origins.

“...Kyungsoo…” The name slipped out finally, a warmth surging through his body and an ease resting his poor heart.

The man nodded his head slowly.

“Kyungsoo…? Why… Why do I know that?” Jongin said slowly to himself, staring particularly hard at the said Kyungsoo now.

It took a moment, but the realization finally settled. This was Kyungsoo. The bane of what felt like years of living; but as he thought about it further it, really, only felt like dreams. As if he had dreamed the last thirteen years of his life.

He breathed out, “What the fuck,” again and could feel his body weakening with the racing thoughts. It was so unbearably much for him to process.

His heart beat wildly against his ribcage and caused him to fall forward as soon as his restrained had been removed. Kyungsoo dove forward and caught the male before he could land on the ground.

“This is why you were supposed to take it slow.” Kyungsoo sighed out in an exasperated tone.

Jongin could feel his stomach churn and rise with the bile within. He threw up there in Kyungsoo’s arms, everything spilling on the ground over his shoulder. Jongin sniffled and coughed with every passing breath.

“What’s happening to me…” Jongin said in a voice much smaller than before, snot and sweat dripping down his face.

“That is an anxiety attack. Your body is too weak to process anything right—” Kyungsoo looked down at Jongin who had clutched for dear life onto his shirt. He bore no happy expression, his eyes pleaded with a desperation that seemed beyond any ability Kyungsoo could fix. Almost as if what Kyungsoo had been answering was not the right answer. “You—” Before he could even start and finish brushing away the hair on the male’s face, something loud and alerting began to sound.

It was like two pieces of metal that grinded on each other inside a tuba that was being blown. It was an awful sound, one that did not make either male feel good.

“Shit.” Kyungsoo mumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.” He began to panic and look in every which direction as the lights in the room switched. It was bright, way too bright for Jongin now.

Jongin screamed with the sudden change and covered his eyes.

“Jongin, I need you stand up, to the best of your ability. Please.” Kyungsoo rushed as he tried to help lift the limp body in his arms.

“What’s happening?!” Jongin groaned with each movement.

“Something that wasn’t supposed to happen for a little while longer.” Kyungsoo had somehow managed to get Jongin up and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.  
Jongin wanted to vomit again, but he tried everything in his power to follow the male who had been holding his weak body.

“Keep your eyes covered and just stick with me. We’re getting out of here.”

Jongin tried so terribly hard to focus on more than one thing, but all he could manage was focusing on his walking. It was too fast for him, especially with what sounded like some sort of alarm to rush him. Either way, he did not feel good as they hobbled to some entrance, doors that Jongin could hear open and close as if automatic.

Suddenly, a voice over a speaker began to repeat a series of words that Jongin could not decipher. It was entirely another language, one he was sure he had never heard before. A few hushed voices down the hall spoke urgently, scaring Jongin enough to make him take his hand from his eyes and look around. The halls looked made of metal, coated in dark paints of reds, greens and blacks. It was futuristic, like something straight out of a science fiction movie.

“I’m dreaming, this is another dream.” Jongin mumbled as he could feel all his body go limp again.

“No, Jongin!” The man whispered in exasperation as he tried to hold up Jongin’s failing body. “No you’re not dreaming, please, I need you to work with me. Please, I’ll tell you everything. I just need you to try your hardest to keep following me!” Jongin could feel his head spinning again, he was breathing so hard it nearly made his eyes roll into the back of his head.

They both tumbled to the ground, Jongin resting in Kyungsoo’s arms and their bodies crumpled in a pile of limbs.

“Jongin, Jongin please, get up.” Kyungsoo whispered so desperately so as he patted the male’s cheek, hoping he would come to. Jongin’s eyes simply fluttered, rolling every which way as his fingers twitched.

They sat there in the middle of the pathway, Kyungsoo desperately looking around and making sure no one was upon them. He was panicking now, unsure of what to do or how to keep going.

Jongin’s eyes had suddenly stopped fluttering and shot open, they were blood shot, but they were awake now.

“Jongin?” Kyungsoo breathed out.

“What’s happening to me…” He let out again in a tone that sent a terrible tinge of fear down Kyungsoo’s spine.

“Pseudo seizures. You’re fine, everything’s fine. You just have to calm down, okay?” Kyungsoo cradled Jongin further to his chest, stroking his cheek and offering the sincerest smile he could to the lost eyes below him.

“I know that face…” Jongin breathed out, his heart rate picking up again.

“Yes, I know you do.. And we must get you up and out of here before you have another one. Is there any way for you to get up?”

Jongin said not another word and tried everything in his will power to get up and carry on with Kyungsoo at his side. Kyungsoo could hear people go into the room that the two of them had just exited, he was glad no one had caught them yet.

It took the two ten minutes before they were at their destination. Ten minutes of Jongin struggling, falling and nearly passing out to a supply closet just down the hall.  
Kyungsoo had sat them down at the farthest end, making sure to sit right next to him and hold him up. He spoke loving words to coerce the male, to keep him calm and to allow his body to do whatever it needed. They spent five minutes like that, with Jongin’s head comfortably placed on Kyungsoo’s shoulder and Kyungsoo stroking his head in soothing patterns. The closet was dark and held no visible source of light, it would have been a giveaway if it were.

Jongin cleared his throat, “Water…”

“Not yet.”

“I’m so… Thirsty..”

“I know, but your stomach can’t handle that yet.. I gave you supplements just an hour ago, we can try later once we’ve gotten away from here.”

Jongin became silent, focusing on his breathing and trying to put his thoughts together.

“What’s going on? Why is this happening to me?”

Kyungsoo let out a hefty breath of air, Jongin could feel every bit of his warmth from it. It was nice to feel, something he wanted to feel more of, a nostalgia that he wanted to delve himself into.

“Why don’t we start with the basics?” Kyungsoo asked in a soft tone, like he had been babying a child. “Do you know who you are?”

“Kim Jongin,” He said with a slight annoyance, of course he knew who he was.

“And how old are you?”

“Twenty-three.. I’m sorry but what do these kinds of questions have to do with—”

“Do you know who I am?”

“You’re Kyun—..” He caught himself before finishing. “Kyungsoo…” He proceeded with caution. What felt like memories on his mind were messing with him, as if they were far away and not real.

“No.. Do you _know_ , who I am?”

Jongin furrowed his brows, “...Y-You’re… Well you’re not my lover.. But… I like you…?” He raised his head to look at Kyungsoo despite how dark it was; he needed to see the answer on his face.

Kyungsoo was silent, the darkness unforgiving and not showing what expression he bore.

“No… You’re also my best friend..” A sudden memory of when he was a child flashed by, or was it a distant dream plagued by the human mind of incorrect remembrance. “No!” Another memory played on his mind. “You’re my older brother?” He questioned in excitement. His head was starting to hurt and piece together a distorted puzzle. He placed a hand on his forehead and shook it, there were so many images of Kyungsoo in his head he could hardly piece together with which one went where in his timeline.

“That’s called Hals Syndrome. I don’t know if there’s an equivalent to human standards but to my people, that’s what we call it. The disembodiment of reality and memory.”

“Isn’t that…” Jongin breathed hard, “fuckin’ psychosis or some shit?” He spoke with a sharp tongue. He was not particularly happy.

“No.. It’s very different… Jongin the last thirteen years of your life have been fabricated. It was built up in a simulation to replicate a potential future that you would have encountered on Earth.”

Jongin seemed to freeze in Kyungsoo’s arms.

“My people… Well… We do experiments. We experiment on species similar to our kind and progress our world of science.. We do it for our government, mainly to produce warfare tactics, but for the sake of other sciences as well…” Kyungsoo paused; Jongin was still, barely a sound of breath coming from his nostrils. “In your case… We were experimenting with a possible weapon of war. One that can completely over take the other person’s mind. To bend their every will into being one with the one who would control them.” He paused again. “But…”

“But?” Jongin repeated in a voice so small, so desperate and quivering with actual fear that it nearly broke Kyungsoo on the spot.

“But you were different.” He waited for Jongin to say something. When he did not, he continued. “We took you when you were just a boy… Right from your bed, as you slept peacefully… Took you aboard the ship and immediately threw you in a simulation… You were never supposed to live beyond the two weeks that we first had you. But I fought to keep you alive, I fought to not make them infect you. You were supposed to be one of twelve adolescent subjects to receive the testing.. But I kept you safe from their grasp…”

“...Safe?” Jongin let out, his voice physically not wanting to speak for itself, but he had so much to say. “You think taking me from my parents when I was a ten-year-old fucking child is safe? What the hell does that even mean?”

“We were just in the beginning processes,” he raised his voice slightly, wanting to overrule any dismay that Jongin wanted to express. “Of this weapon. So all experiments were leading to death. To this day we still have not found any answers, we’re like headless chickens running around, we just don’t know what we’re doing yet. We seem like we do, but honestly, most of the doctors are just throwing formulas together and hoping it’ll work.”

“Then why now?! Why take me away now?! What was I doing for thirteen years?”

Kyungsoo could just feel the agony in his voice, the tears that were trickling down his cheeks. “You’ve been asleep for thirteen years. And now because, I couldn’t keep them away from you any longer. Tomorrow you were to be put under a new test and I knew, I knew from the bottom of my heart that it would not have worked. The math did not match, the formula was like the last five we had tested it on. The results were going to be inconclusive. I had to get you out, I needed to get you away.” He brought his voice back down, inching his way in front of Jongin and reaching his hands out to wipe away the tears he knew would be present.

Jongin tore himself away before the hands could rest on his face.

“Why? Why am I so special then?”

Kyungsoo sighed, “It’s not very easy to explain.”

“Then try.” Jongin snapped. He deserved every last explanation and he was going to get it.

Kyungsoo stared hard through the darkness of where he thought Jongin’s eyes would be. He sighed once more, “Straight to the point… It’s because I love you.” He straightened his back and gave no second thought to his words. “Now it may have been the moment I chose you from your bed that I fell in love with you, but after practically raising you, watching you grow up and dictating everything in your life…” He cleared his throat. “I became obsessed.. Obsessed with everything that you were. I had to instill myself in every part of your life. I weeded myself in memories before your tenth birthday and presented myself as a friend. We lived together for a while when you were a teenager, we were not exactly friends but brothers. And as you left for college, I chose to pose as your love interest. It’s a sick and unhealthy obsession. You have every right to hate me. But the thought of losing you and letting someone else touch you makes me repulsed, like I want to take my hands and press it to their skull until it crushes to a pulp.” Kyungsoo let out a dry laugh. It unsettled Jongin, especially when a sniffle had echoed from his nose. He was crying. “It’s pathetic. It’s a sickness… And quite frankly I don’t care. There’s not a single thing that I don’t know about you. You’re important to me. Beyond any recognizable human trait. And for thirteen years I delved in that obsession. Possessing everything that you are as mine. Dictating when you woke up for mornings, what food was available, who got to talk to you or be your friend… But the only thing I couldn’t do was make every last part of your mind think of me and only me. You always wanted to do what you wanted to do, you were a completely free spirit…For a while I worked hard on formulas and creating things that might work to control every bit of you. But as I found they would fail, my mind started to see the error in what we were doing… That it wasn’t okay to just take someone else’s child and practically kill them.. We.. We believe that because you don’t belong to our species, then there are no strings attached. But how can we go off that? Especially when we pick one that is so similar to our own… You begin to think, they are like you. You forget the differences.”  
Both males were crying. Soft tuffs of sniffling and shifting cloth sounded besides Kyungsoo’s words and the outside alarm.

“That’s why. That’s why I had to save you. Because I’m a compulsive freak who needed to get you out of here.”

Words found silence in the room. Jongin didn’t know what to say. It was so hard for him to even make a response.

“Say something… Please..” Kyungsoo said with desperation leaking through.

A sudden movement of bodies had ended in Jongin leaned forward and his head pressed gently against Kyungsoo’s. “I don’t know what to say… I don’t even know how I feel right now. It’s sick.. It really is.. But it’s you! You’ve been there for everything.. You were so important to me… But I guess that’s not real..”

“No. All of that, all of me that you remember is real, nothing that I said was a lie. All our interactions were what they would be now. They were real.”

Jongin was silent, trying so hard to hold back a sadistic laugh. “I don’t know if I can trust that. I don’t even know if I’m dreaming now. I don’t know what’s real. And what’s not..” He whispered the last part.

Kyungsoo felt the frown slowly drop on his lips. “Of course…” He nodded to reassure himself and placed a firm hand on Jongin’s shoulder. “I wasn’t even supposed to tell you any of this yet. I was only supposed to tell you that you’ve been sitting in that chamber and chair for thirteen years, basically asleep. All this is way too much on you. I have to apologize.”

“I needed to hear it one way or another.” Jongin chuckled just a bit. Kyungsoo laughed just as lightly back. “So if I’ve been in that dream world for thirteen years, how come I’m not skin and bones? Or disfigured since you took me as a child?”

“Supplements and exercise. Your body cannot absorb solids and liquid, so we fed you supplemental pills. Our technology is far more advanced that human technology, so we were able to allow your body the normal growth of pubescent years into adulthood.”

Jongin nodded this time against Kyungsoo’s forehead. “Okay.. Okay.” He repeated to reassure himself. “And what about my family?”

“You’ve been missing for thirteen years.”

Jongin frowned and pulled away. “Can I ever visit them again?”

“No. The chances of survival are low. My people will find you before you can even step foot on Earth’s soil.”

Jongin sighed, the thought of Baekhyun and his family and everything else being fake made him undoubtedly upset. Yet what could he do? He felt like there was nothing he _could_ do. “If they can catch me so easily why bother escaping?” He said to change the subject on his mind.

“Because Earth is a hotspot for my people. We often look for test subjects there. And a runaway might make them want to keep a sharp eye on the place. Especially since it’s where you came from. We have to get as far as possible from here and there.”

“And how do we do that?”

“My friend, who works on the inside is currently helping me through this. That’s why we’re waiting here. He will open the vents and allow us access through them all the way to the loading bay. Where we will take a cargo ship and get out of here.”

“But don’t they track that?”

“Yes, but I can easily get rid of the tracker on the ship. Surprisingly enough, we are not chipped or tracked. This ship is designed so that no one can escape. These tests are basically designed so that you never know you are even on the ship. It’s almost impossible to wake up on your own. Though, the people who have woken up on their own have yet to try and escape. Until now, of course.”

“Wait… Can’t wake up on their own? Then how did I wake up?”

“Essentially, what happens is that for you to wake up you need to wake up on your own. I can do it through the computer system, but your reaction of a sudden wakening would have been much more severe than what happened earlier. It’s possible you could have died if I woke you up at the wrong moment. So I put you through a series of dreams, planning for you to find the outskirts and the loop holes in them. For you to find their end and wake up on your own. It’s a repeated process that can happen multiple times before you even wake up. There have been people who could recognize the obscurities in their dreams and wander outside the dream zone. From that, they were able to wake up once they found their way out of the dream zone.”

“So… You couldn’t just lead me to the outskirts while holding my hand? You had to put me through a burning building, lost at sea?”

“Ah.. Um, those were for good reasons..”

Jongin grimaced, Kyungsoo could not see it but he was thoroughly not impressed.

“Well… I had to ease you into the process first of all. No one has ever just found the end of the dream zone and woken up. They have all gradually found their way to it. If you woke up after seeing it for the first time, it’s possible your mind could have been lost. Stuck between the fabricated simulations and reality you live in. Which is what true Hals Syndrome is. Waking you up gradually from the dreams was necessary. And I.. Also…” He cleared his throat again, that uncomfortable silence building up once again.

“Also..?”

“I uh.. I wanted to build an underlying subconscious need for me inside of you. If I put you through perilous situations with me at the core, I figured it would be harder for you to separate yourself from me if I instilled this kind of stimulation in you.... That way you would be unable to refuse me when you woke up..”

Jongin let out a breathy laugh after a moment. “Where’s the logic in that?”

“It’s psychological.. If I can embed myself deep within the confines of your mind, then I’ll always be with you. Certain smells or the way something looks would remind you of me. You would yearn for more warmth, even if you did not remember _me_ , you would remember _it_. A nostalgic feeling creeping around you at just the mere idea of me. I would be what’s good in your life.. All that you would ever need.” Kyungsoo’s voice seemed to grow even lower than it already was. Just the way he spoke made Jongin feel warm, comfortable even. Like there was nothing wrong with Kyungsoo, he was just who he was. But these were his true intentions, to put himself in almost every single part of Jongin’s life so that there would always be a part of him somewhere within Jongin.

“I feel like you shouldn’t admit to something like that.”

“I told you. It’s compulsive. I’m not right in my own head… I need you to stay with me and be by my side. And studies have shown when you’re honest to those you love their bonds grow. I just… I can’t be without you Jongin…” Kyungsoo hung his head, his hand losing the grip it had on his shoulder and falling slightly.

Jongin really did not know what to say. He couldn’t run away, nor did he really want to say that it was okay. Because it really wasn’t okay. This situation was not okay. None of this was okay. Everything felt like a lie!

“So… How was that all possible? How were able to put yourself in my head?”

“Through the machine you ripped off your head.”

Jongin gazed over at the man with confused, unseen eyes.

“What you saw in your mind all those years, I also saw in my mind. We become connected every time I sit across from you in that chair and place that helmet on my own head.”

A silence drew over them.

“So then if we’re connected, isn’t it possible for me to make up things in your head?”

“…Yes and no.. I act as the control station, unless you get past the dream zone, there’s no way for you to take control over me.”

That had no help in making Jongin feel better.

“Well… I guess.. For the last thirteen years, you’ve been keeping me alive. So you have my thanks for that.”

Kyungsoo raised his head, focusing his eyes to try and see what he had been thinking. But barely any light that peeked from under the door could do anything. It was still so dark.

“Can I ask a question?” Jongin asked.

“You have every right to ask a question. I have nothing to hide from you.”

“What would happen if they went with the experiment?”

“Essentially, your brain either would have melted or exploded. You would have woken to a terrible pain in your head as your body shut down… And I would have to sit across from you, attached to your mind and watch you suffer between the reality in your head and the reality here until your death.”

“...But what if it worked…?”

“Then the doctors would find some other way to kill you. Just because one session was successful doesn’t mean they won’t try other things. Who’s to say you would be able to ever be a free person again? You could have remained a mindless servant for the rest of your life.”

Jongin shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, he really did have a headache. “Okay… Well then, who are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean like.. What are you in all this? Are you like my doctor? And is your name even Kyungsoo? You keep saying I’m a different species, are we like on a spaceship right now and you’re an alien that abducted me when I was a kid? Like, what is this?”

“Well, I guess that’s exactly it, except.. The alien here is really you in this situation.” Kyungsoo’s voice piqued. “I’m not your main doctor, but basically his assistant. I just have a little more authority than a doctor’s assistant would on Earth. And yes, we are in a ‘spaceship’. We’re just on the outskirts of Beetlejuice. Too far for earth and my own planet to see. And no, my name is not really Kyungsoo.. It’s Odt. But Kyungsoo has become dear to me, and you can continue to call me that.”

“Oh… Odt… O-Okay… So we’re just… Floating in space.. Right now?” Jongin breathed hard.

“Yes, essentially.”

Jongin leaned forward and pressed his face into his hands. He let out a laugh, a little too loud for anyone’s liking. “Fuckin’ hell…” He muttered.

Kyungsoo let him be as he sat in his thoughts.

“So like… What are you then? I’m human and you’re?”

“A Shael. From the planet Turn.”

“And where is that?”

“Turn, is located far from here. At least five solar systems away.”

“And there weren’t any species similar to you in any of those places?”

“Oh there are. We take samples from all over… It just happens that you were also picked up by us…”

“Wow.. What rotten luck…”

Kyungsoo frowned. “I’d like to think it was more than that.”

“More than luck? Like a terrible coincidence?” He spat.

“More like fate.” Kyungsoo said in a calm voice in hopes to allay him just a bit.

“Heh.. So even you know concepts like fate?”

“Well, just about everyone does. Loads of civilizations understand that there are forces at work in this universe that can’t be easily explained.”

Jongin snorted.

“...If you’d like.. I can show you.” Kyungsoo lowered his voice again and inched himself back to his previous position, to the side of the male—their knees and thighs touching. He felt relieved when the male did not pull away from him.

“...And how are you going to show me?”

“When we get out of here, I can bring you across the universe and show you the different civilizations that reside there. What they believe in, how they function, what powers and technologies they have. I can show you it all.” His voice was close to Jongin’s ear, it was so warm. Not a single trace of malice had laced his words and that’s what worried Jongin. The fact that he would so easily follow whatever this man had to say.

“...Well… It’s not like… I can go home… So I guess.. I guess I’m stuck with you.” Jongin turned away from the male, he could feel his cheeks burn.

Kyungsoo took in a sharp breath of air, an excitement surged through his body upon hearing those words. Suppressing his gratitude, he let his head sink back on the male’s shoulder.

“Thank you…” He muttered so very softly. “Thank you,” he repeated, this time raising his hand to clutch onto the male’s shirt.

Jongin shook his head, completely baffled at his own actions and the situation. He was going along with it and it seemed ridiculous. But their position was nice—comfortable was really the word he wanted. It was easy on his head and a warm sensation had been burning about his body, it was familiar and nostalgic, and he loved the way he felt. For once, since being awake, he wasn’t dizzy.

As they spent the rest of their time in the closet in that position, Jongin had nodded off. His mind gone blank and body relaxed.

 

⁘ ֍ ⁘

Jongin woke with a startle. His heart racing and temples sweating. Everything was still nearly pitch black, his eyes had yet to adjust. He had been laying on a rather cold metal like ground, breathing heavily and reaching a hand out to see if he could see it. But his hand only went so far as it met with a cold wall. He turned over, his body aching and shaking as he did so and saw as there had been a small beam of light coming from the floor just across from him.

“Kyungsoo..?” He called out in a whisper, it seemed instinctual and for a second he could not remember who belonged to the name. Why he had called it baffled him further. But as he sat up and stared around in the darkness, not recognizing anything, he began to panic.

Memories of what had happened before he fell asleep started to flood. What he thought were memories began to feel like dreams, like his mind was trying to recall something he could not distinguish.

“Kyungsoo!” He raised his voice higher, hoping that if the male was asleep he would also wake up. Everything had come back to him now, and he was starting to fear for his very life.

“Kyungsoo!” He yelled out to the darkness of the room. It was so cold and so lonely once the vibration of his voice on the walls disappeared.

His eyes began to pop out of his head and panic oozed from every crevice he possessed. His eyes watered and hands shook as he raised them to press against his face and swipe his hair back. He curled himself into a ball against the wall, rocking ever so slightly back and forth as he clutched his hands on the back of his head.

“It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real,” he repeated as a soft mantra to himself, trying to calm his mind and tell himself that it was merely a dream. This was fake and he would soon wake up again. Or that Kyungsoo would appear out of nowhere and save him somehow.

His thoughts began to ring loud and clear over his rocking, _I wish this had never happened. I wish this would just all stop and I can finally rest.._

When suddenly a fleeting thought ran by his head, a thought that had never occurred before this moment.

How bad would it be if he purposely ended it all on his own? To permanently stay asleep and never wake back up?

But the moment was just fleeting! Not even a second more was his mind able to process the full thought until Kyungsoo’s dark timbre of a voice called out from another memory:

_There have been people who could recognize the obscurities in their dreams and wander outside the dream zone. From that, they were able to wake up once they found their way out of the dream zone._

Jongin lifted his head, pausing his rocking and mulled over Kyungsoo’s words.

“I have to find the end, the end of the dream zone..” He whispered to himself. But then he suddenly thought it was possible that Kyungsoo’s words were a lie, they were just part of another world that his dreams had created and had no meaning. But then he thought about the white light he had seen in a few of his dreams, a white light that had drawn him near and away from the progression of the dreams.

He needed to find that light.

That’s where Kyungsoo would be.

That’s where he needed to be.

With every ounce of willpower left in his body, Jongin stood to his aching feet. It still felt the same as before he fell asleep, but he did not want to take the chance and succumb to the fact that this was reality. He would never be sure.

Once he stood and found that his body could stand on its own, he trudged for the door where light leaked from underneath. Once he was in a two-foot range of the door, it opened automatically. Sliding with a machine sound and revealing a barren hallway, much like the one he had walked through earlier with Kyungsoo. There was no alarm though, and the lights were dimmer, easier on his eyes.

He poked his head out, looking both ways before deciding he would travel to the left, away from where he thought he and Kyungsoo had come from. As he walked with great weakness in his limbs he held onto the side of walls where metal railings had been bolted. In moments where he would take a rest he would take inventory of his clothes. They were stark white pants long and baggy at the ends, covering most of his bare feet and a single black strip of cloth on the outside edges. His shirt was long sleeve, a V-neck cut into his chest and made from one of the most comfortable materials he had ever felt. It almost seemed like it was warm to the touch.

He stopped only a couple times to catch his breath and hold himself up when he felt terribly weak. But the longer he traveled the more he gathered strength and was able to walk at a fairly brusque pace.

“Come on Kyungsoo… Talk to me… Show me where you are…” He mumbled to himself once again.

The halls were desolate, void of any kind of life and he thought it strange. He only hoped he would not jinx his words.

As his legs trotted one after the other, he only seemed to find himself more lost than before. There was a moment when he had passed a window going up a ramp, it caught him off guard and taken aback. Before him was pale red color of a planet. Large and round as they go to the human eye. It was so large that it fell further down than the window could offer, he pressed his nose gently to the cool glass and saw how far it went. Beyond the pale red planet had been multitudes of stars, far away and bright like the night sky he had always remembered so vividly. Each light called to him, a warmth surging through his body like the pieces of light that he had seen in his dreams before. His gaze fell back to the planet that seemed frozen in time, only the ship moved on. Half of the planet was fallen in shadow, the left portion of his sight to be exact. It only made him wonder what the sun had looked like just on the other side. But as his eyes roamed the planet he saw a gathering of clouds below in the shadowed part of the planet. It looked like an eye of a hurricane from where he stood, flashes of lightening flickering throughout the clouds. He could only image how terrible the storm was and how lucky he was to not be there.

But unbeknownst to him, a figure had waltzed just behind him. They were a gentle soul, it was no secret. The reason they had wondered this far from their station was to find solitude. To gaze out the window as they had so many times before. But the sight of a patient awake and staring so wondrously out the window made their blood run cold. They had stood there for a moment, watching in amazement at what the patient would do. But it was a matter of time before they realized they had a duty to fulfill.

“Hey!” The voice yelled out, scaring Jongin so terribly that he nearly hit his head against the window.

Jongin stared at the person, taking inventory of the high ponytail the person sported and the gray-scrub like outfit it also wore. A white strip of cloth ran down the pant leg, much like his own.

However, when the person did not say anything more and seemed like they wanted to do something, Jongin took that opportunity and tread up the ramp.

The person raised their wrist and began to say a series of words that were too far for Jongin to hear. It was not like he would understand anyways, it was an entirely other language. Though, that did not matter, what did was that Jongin needed to escape. So, he turned on his heels and made a dash up the ramp and turned a corner. What he did not know was that just as he was turning the corner, the person had pulled out a weapon, aimed it right for his back and shot. It missed by just a hairs length.

Jongin ran as far and as fast as his legs could give him, but it was not long when that same screeching alarm rang about the halls. A voice came over the speaker again and started a string of words that he could not understand. Jongin ignored them and ran on, turning every corner he could and keeping an eye out for something, anything. To hide in, Kyungsoo, or a sign of light. But as he ran down a hall he had passed an entrance to another. He paused when a glare of light had caught the corner of his eye and caused him to back track.

There, down the hall had been one of the sliding doors; open a skew with a dark red light emanating from it. But in that dark red light had been a flickering white light, one that instantly made a rush of excitement run through his veins. His legs moved on, running down the hall and toward the room. Just behind him he could hear voices rushing around, looking for him. But he ignored them, focusing on the door and running like he had never done before.

Just as he was almost halfway down the hall, the door began to open. A hand shot out and shoved the door open with a force that nearly broke it. In the doorway with brazen eyes and dressed in black was Kyungsoo. His named slipped from Jongin’s lips and caused him to nearly trip over his feet. He almost lost all feeling in his legs at the sight of the male. It had been the first time he could coherently process the male’s face since waking up, it was a wonderful sight to behold.

Kyungsoo dashed out from the doorway and met Jongin halfway, holding him up before he could crash down into the floor.

“I got you!” Kyungsoo said in a rushed voice, just barely holding Jongin up. He was so tired, his eyes fluttering with the fatigue that played on his muscles.

“The light, I saw the edge of the dream..” Jongin muttered as his body felt completely out of his control.

“What? No, Jongin. There’s no light..” A man had suddenly appeared behind Kyungsoo, a small flashlight in his hands.

Kyungsoo’s voice and the man had all been a blur to Jongin. All he wanted to do was cling to Kyungsoo and stay there. But his body had been lifted by the two and was carried off swiftly to another supply closet. This time the closet was lit dimly, and the voices of two people had been unnatural in that he did not recognize the language.

At some point, Jongin had been seated behind Kyungsoo—his legs wrapped around the small man’s torso and further attaching them had been some sort of belt. It was hard to tell what was going on from Jongin’s perspective, especially when it was all happening so fast.

Kyungsoo had been readying the two of them in a vent, speaking lowly with his friend.

“Yal, thank you. For everything. I’ll have to repay you someday.” Kyungsoo grabbed his friends arm before he could walk away.

“Hey, that’s all I’m looking forward to.” The two smiled at one another. It was truly a strong friendship that would be missed. “Take care of yourself Odt. And try and let me know every once in a while if your alive.” The friend frowned this time.

“I’ll do what I can. No promises.”

“You’re the smartest of everyone on this ship, you’ll come up with something.” The two laughed at this. “Goodbye, my friend.”

“Goodbye.” Kyungsoo squeezed his arm and watched as his friend left the closet in a rush, turning the light off as he did so.

Their conversation had no meaning to Jongin as he did not understand the language. But he did what he could to speak against Kyungsoo’s back.

“Who was that? And what language was that?”

“That was Yal, my closest friend. He’s a custodian on the ship and is going to navigate us through the ventilation system. We’re trusting him to not kill us and get us through to the loading bay. And, we were just speaking Ingrat. It’s my native language.”

“How do you speak English so well?”

“Years of studying the humans.”

“...Kyungsoo?” Jongin’s voice seemed cautious.

“Yes..?”

“How old are you?”

Kyungsoo chuckled, “Too old, probably.” He was only forty-four to human standards, and one-hundred and three to his planet. It was a tricky subject to understand, especially when he looked not a day over twenty-three himself.

Suddenly, a strong gust of suctioning air turned on in the vent.

“That’s our cue,” Kyungsoo said. “Jongin keep your face on my back and don’t look up until I say so, got it?”

Jongin nuzzled his face into Kyungsoo’s neck and nodded.

“Alright, here we go.” With a single push, the two were thrust into the vents at a slight angle. Jongin’s lower back had been pressed against the floor of the round vent but surprisingly there had been no friction. Air flew by all around him, almost making it hard to breathe; but as they bumped and turned and found themselves suspended in air a few times, Jongin couldn’t help but hold ever so tighter onto the male. He dared not open his eyes for fear of screaming and accidentally throwing off their momentum. It would have been catastrophic in another reality, but thankfully he did not open his eyes and let Kyungsoo lead the way.

What seemed like forever had been a total of three minutes flying around the vents. They had come to a stop and the ventilation had stopped. Kyungsoo inched their bodies forward to poke his head out of the open vent before him.

“I owe you big time Yal.” Kyungsoo muttered to himself in his language. “Jongin, you can let go now. We’re here.” Jongin slowly released his body from the tight grip. It all ached because of the tension but it felt relieving to be free.

They had arrived at the loading bay. It was large and full of spaceships that looked too surreal for Jongin. Some in dark colors, some bright and yellow, some with big claw looking appendages and some that were small and red. Soon after they had gotten a look they were unbuckled and crawled back into the vent to stay hidden.

“Now, there’s usually no one in the area except for two security guards. It’s possible they’re not here right now because there is an escaped prisoner. And I don’t know if they realized I’m missing yet. So, we must get our way into one of those ships and Yal is going to access the main board to open the bay doors from his room. Once the doors are open, we should be home free. It’s possible once they realize we’re leaving they’ll send out fighter ships, but hopefully by then I’ll have gotten the ship into hyper drive.”

Jongin nodded, pretending as if he understood what he had just been told. “How can your friend do all that?”

“He’s the best technician I know. He can easily hack into the security room and access the cameras. He already has access to the ventilation system since he’s a custodian, it was just a matter of opening the right vents at the right time to make sure we didn’t end up in incinerator or out in space. Usually there are buttons you press that automatically send trash to certain rooms, but he had to go in manually to get us to here. Now he just has to hack the main board of this loading bay to get us out.”

“What if he gets caught?”

“Oh he won’t. He’s stolen a seventh of the money from the largest bank back on our planet. He was never caught.” Kyungsoo turned to Jongin and smiled.

“So you became friends with a criminal.” Jongin did not seem very impressed

“Yup, and now we’re about to become very wanted. And we’re gonna be chased probably for the rest of our lives.”

“So now you tell me.” Jongin sighed and pressed his face into his hands.

“I mean it was obvious from the start, wasn’t it?”

“I’m in no state of mind to think.” Jongin poked up from his hands and glared at the male.

Kyungsoo chuckled, “You’re right. Alright, are you ready?”

“No. Wait!” Jongin grabbed the back of the man’s dark shirt before he left.

Kyungsoo turned back to the male.

“...Is this real? Is this my reality?”

“Yes Jongin. This is what is real.” Kyungsoo had turned his body to full face the seated patient, he crawled his way over rested just between Jongin’s legs.

“...Then why weren’t you there when I woke up?” Jongin looked away as Kyungsoo grabbed his face in his hands. He felt weak upon the thought, wanting so desperately to know the truth and to stop feeling so anxious.

“Oh Jongin..” Kyungsoo stroked the younger’s cheeks, staring the male down through the dimly lit vent. Kyungsoo had sat on Jongin’s thigh, straddling it gently so not to hurt him in the cramped space. “I’m sorry. Yal had opened the vents and you were still asleep, so I left thinking it would be fine if I went to see him for a couple of minutes. I only wanted to make sure everything would be fine before we left and let you sleep for a little longer. I shouldn’t have left you, I’m sorry, I knew I shouldn’t have done it.”

Jongin felt his chest constrict within itself, his lungs finding it hard to breathe properly as Kyungsoo wiped away his tears.

“I was only gone for five minutes, you must have woken up right after I left... When I came back you were already gone… Yal and I looked for you over the security cameras. That’s why we were in that room a little while ago. I was looking for you, I knew it would be impossible to try and follow you on foot through this maze of a ship. And then, like fate had made it so, you were running down that hall.”

Jongin had found Kyungsoo’s gaze, his eyes turned red with the tears that grew there. It was amazing how sensitive he had been to this man. This man so utterly obsessed with him that it should have repulsed him, but he couldn’t. All he wanted to do was keep this man forever in front of him.

When no one dared to speak and Kyungsoo had been so close to his face, Jongin let the moment take him away when Kyungsoo eased their lips together. The kiss was not supposed to have happened yet, it should have been a few weeks more before they could progress to that intimacy. After Jongin had figured out what Kyungsoo meant to him and where their lives would lead them. Even though it felt like he had known the male all his life, it was hard to resist that his heart had desperately yearned for this.

The kiss was just shy of soft, because of the longing that lingered on both of their hearts they had added just a tad of force. But they both held back enough to keep it gentle and innocent. Just to taste the other’s lips and to get the feel for the first time, in reality, of what it was like to kiss one another.

Kyungsoo had been the first to release the kiss and left an extra soft stroke of his thumb on the younger’s warm cheeks.

“Could you ever forgive me?” Kyungsoo spoke in that soft tone again, this time it was almost as if he could barely speak. His voice struggling to find words, like the weight to what he was saying was so much more than what Jongin could process.

But as Jongin came back from the warm sensation that buzzed throughout his body, Kyungsoo had removed himself and started for the vent door again. The warmth that left was missed immediately but the two had a mission to finish and it was enough of a reminder to bring him back to their reality.

The two easily snuck out of the vent and around the ships. Two guards had been stationed inside the booth, just as predicted, but they were so unaware to everything that it was easy to blatantly open one of the larger gray ships and enter it. One guard was asleep, and another seemed to be lost in a video with headphones on what we would consider a phone.

Everything for this process had been set up weeks in advance. The cameras for each room that Kyungsoo and Jongin would travel were tampered with so that the security room would never know where they were. Yal had an alibi from his roommates who had fallen asleep with him in their dorm quarters. It had been the middle of sleeping hours for the ship so most of everyone was asleep and finding it hard to roll themselves out of bed; everyone thinking that maybe it was just a fire in the kitchens again. Patient wakenings _did_ happen, but were rare so most of everyone on the ship had been in no rush until the overhead speaker began to list off that the patient had escaped. And it was true of what Kyungsoo said about his friend Yal, he would not be found out. No one would ever know what had happened and how experiment patient 7009 had escaped. Not for another twelve hours until they realized that Kyungsoo was also missing. It would take five days to search the ship for Kyungsoo, forcing them to the conclusion that he had left with Jongin. They had noted a while ago that the assistant doctor had an attachment to the patient the moment he picked out the child all that time ago. But that was the near future, one where Yal would remain on the ship and sweep the floors with a smirk on his face as doctors would gossip about the events.

But as Kyungsoo flipped switches and pressed buttons on the front of the ship, the bay doors began to open. An alarm that was automatically embedded in the system when they opened had gone off and lights flashed, signaling for all to clear as the suction between atmospheres would be intense.

The security guards had a comical routine in front of Jongin. The sleeping one woke with a jolt and watched as two people sat in the front seat of one of their ships, ready for takeoff. The one aware grabbed what looked like a magazine and threw it at his co-worker to alert him. Jongin smiled at it even though it kind of worried him that he and Kyungsoo would not get to leave. Kyungsoo had buckled the male into his seat and blinded his view for a moment. But as soon as he left, the two men in the booth looked frantic as they tried pressing buttons and their faces were red. Their mouths wide and open and yelling at one another. Despite being of different species, they sure had very similar emotional patterns. It was easy to read Kyungsoo’s emotions and it was obvious to see the two men in the booth were not very happy.

Suddenly, a smash had come from Jongin’s left. Kyungsoo had just rammed his foot into the control panel to his left.

“Wh-What did you do that for?”

“Destroyed the tracking device on this. Now they won’t find us.” Kyungsoo had quickly run back to his seat at the head. “Alright, are you ready?” He buckled himself up and held tightly onto his steering handles.

“No,” Jongin said as he gripped his chair, the vibrations and moving of the vehicle was off putting. Each jolt felt like it would be his last and he would fall and blow to smithereens in the ship.

“Really?” Kyungsoo whipped his head to the younger male.

“N-No.. I just.. Just go! I’ll never be ready!” He yelled over the noises of the thrusters and the alarm in the bay.

“Hold on tight!”

Jongin shut his eyes as Kyungsoo flipped a few more buttons and the ship was released from its track. It was suspended successfully in air. Carefully, Kyungsoo backed the ship up, through the wide-open doors and out into the vacuum of space. The ship had little turbulence as Kyungsoo moved it far enough away from the main ship and flipped a few more switches before forcing his handles down and forward. They had moved at a speed that Jongin was not ready for and his head hit the back of his seat. His eyes opened at the impact and watched the ship seemed like it was going nowhere. The stars in front of him were so far off that he was almost certain he was not going anywhere had it not been for the way their ship shook.

They were like that for a solid half hour, moving faster than the speed of sound to gain as much distance as possible and to hope that they would not be chased down. When Kyungsoo was sure that they had gained enough distance, he slowed the ship down and brought it to a steady slow pace.

“Alright, this should be enough to get us ready for hyperdrive.” Kyungsoo said as he unbuckled himself.

“Where are you going?”

“Removing the hardware for the mapping system. They can still track us through that.”

Jongin had unbuckled himself as well and followed the smaller male quickly through the ship. It was not a very large ship, but it was big enough to hold two floors. The top level holding bridge, mapping system and canteen. The bottom was more of the cargo area, seeping barracks, and storage.

Kyungsoo had opened a door to a small locker on the top floor and pulled out a pair of clothes. “Here, dress into these. And take the black thing on the right sleeve off, it’s a tracking device that’s only activated with a person is separate from their team.”

Jongin took the clothes and began to strip from his old ones. While he changed Kyungsoo messed around with the circular obtrusion in the middle of the floor. It lit up into a green and blue hologram of the current solar system they were in. Kyungsoo pressed a few buttons on the side of the table that projected the hologram and watched it disappear. A small luminescent chip removed itself and Kyungsoo quickly switched it with one he had in his pocket.

“Yal made this for me from his own tools. All we have to do is throw away the other suits and this chip and we should be fine.”

Kyungsoo had seen how Jongin struggled to remove the chip from his sleeve and walked over to help. But just as he arrived, the male had ripped it off and held it out for him. Kyungsoo took it with caution and looked the male over with a careful eye to make sure the outfit was on correctly; which to his surprise it was.

“Help me carry these to the trash shoot.” Kyungsoo beckoned as they invaded all the ships storages and removed the clothes. Of course, not before changing into a pair himself.

“Shouldn’t we save some of them?” Jongin asked as they stood just in front of the vent.

“Nope,” Kyungsoo dumped the mapping chip and his pile of clothes. Jongin followed in suit. “We’re going to arrive right at our destination. Once we get in there, we sell this ship and buy new clothes for ourselves and get you to some sort of doctor to look at you. Then after you’re better, we’ll head out on another ship and take it from there.”

The two had walked back to the bridge of the ship, taking seats back at their respective stations.

“And where did you say we were going again?” Jongin buckled himself into the seat again.

“To Eleto. I have a friend there in the country of Alle who I know will help us there. Their technology and medicine is unparalleled to most. And our people are on rather friendly terms, so it should be a mildly easy ride.”

“Okay.” Jongin had simplified. There was no use in asking more questions or retorting anything. This would be his life now and he was starting to think that he was okay with it. Maybe it was the all the adrenaline in his body, but he was feeling particularly numb at that point.

“Are you… Okay, Jongin?” Kyungsoo asked when he noticed the lack of expression on the younger’s face.

“Probably not. But it’s okay. I just have to.. Get through this, I think I can do this.” He offered a meek smile to the latter.

Kyungsoo sat back in his seat, a soft smile on his lips but he said nothing. He figured he did not need to. He would let Jongin be for the time being and let him get through his thoughts on his own.

“Alright then, Alle it is.”

And within a few pushes of buttons and the thrust of the steering handles, a bright white light appeared in front of their ship. Everything in the window slowly turned white as the ship vibrated with the force going by it. Jongin stared straight into the bright light, his heart pumping with excitement and his chest swelling with warmth.

Knowing that Kyungsoo would be by his side at the other end made him all sorts of content. He knew he would be okay for the time being.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, now that you've read it, let me just vent. 
> 
> I don't even know if I followed the suggestions correctly, like I feel like I could easily have offended you and I apologize in advance if you did not like this or it was just sooo not what you were looking for :( By the time I realized what I was writing was probably wrong, I was already so far into the story and I wouldn't have nearly enough time to start a new one or choose a new promt. So I really hope you like it and anyone else who reads it. Like, idek if this is considered psychological drama??? What issss thissssss????
> 
> I chose this prompt:  
> Jongin has the night of his life, but then he wakes up. Yearning for the man in his dreams, Jongin goes on a search for Kyungsoo.  
> And then I don't think this is fluffy enough, and definitely not fantasy and I'm soooooo sorry about that, like 3/4's of the way writing this I forgot that I was writing this for an individual and ugh. I was actually gonna almost do the midsummer!au and had a plot going for that but then I was like "nahhhhh this is cooler!!" Especially bc I was like "I bet people's first instinct for the night if their life is sexual, but what if it was a shit ton of things?!" And then this happened lol
> 
> I also hope no one felt particularly offended by this, I did the research that I could.
> 
> I also really hope you could understand this and if you have any questions because I left something out, please let me know! I will gladly answer all questions. I know every little detail in this story so little things may not be so obvious to me...
> 
> In the middle of writing this I also came to the conclusion of where I wanted to go with this. It was supposed to be symbolic of dreaming/the stages of sleep. 
> 
> The first two scenes are kinda symbolic of Stage 1; where you experience sudden muscle contractions and you can easily be woken up. Muscle contractions (or the feeling of falling is symbolized through the sex and the moment Jongin pushes Kyungsoo out of the street) These are also the more normal scenes/easy scenes. 
> 
> Stage 2 of sleep is represented through the third and fourth scenes. Sleep gets more serious on the brain and bursts of brain activity happen. Blood pressure begins to lower and breathing is more regular. Scenes three and four get a little more wacky with the fire and crazy nurses. Bursts of brain activity have an image of fire crackling/flickering in my head so I put the apartment on fire lol. And the way his body starts becoming unable to move is due to the slowing of the heart and breathing. The oxygen tubes/masks in the hospital are also supposed to symbolize regular breathing patterns as they are to help you breath. 
> 
> Stage 3 and 4 is symbolized by the fifth and sixth scenes. Muscles relax (like when Jongin is in the snow and comfortable) body temperature has significantly dropped (the cold/ocean water), deep sleep occurs here (the vast ocean is a metaphor of its own with its depth), and you are less responsive of noise and environment (when Jongin gradually forgets about the monster chasing him). 
> 
> The fact that the dreams get progressively more ridiculous is also symbolic of the deeper of sleep you get into.
> 
> And then there is the last Stage, REM. You emit brain waves that are similar to when you are awake in this stage so I tried my best to make it seem like this was reality, or it was just a more elaborate dream. 
> 
> Whether it's a dream or is reality is completely up to you. But I don't think I did a good enough job of making this as symbolic/opened ended as I wanted. I'm sure no one picked up on the fact I tried making this into the stages of sleep. Idk, this idea came to me in the middle of writing it so I hope you guys enjoyed what this fic is. It's sooooo weird. I knoowwwwww. Cut me down, get rid of me, burry me in the ground. But I still hope some of you enjoyed it


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